BLM to Kill Hundreds of Desert Tortoises as its Conservation Center Runs Out of Money

Some sad news I have come across today. The US Bureau of Land Management has recently announced that it is planning on murdering hundreds of
endangered desert tortoises....

Why..??? They could at least release them all into the wild and some of them may have a chance of surviving. Or they could try and find homes for them
or sanctuaries that might take them. Apparently this is all due to lack of funding...

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced it will kill hundreds of threatened desert tortoises it's been caring for at a Nevada conservation
facility. The slaughter is being blamed on a lack of funds by the agency.

Real estate developers in southern Nevada who wanted to disrupt the habitat of threatened desert tortoises to build their little enclaves of air
conditioning and irrigation in the arid suburbs of Las Vegas have been able to do so -- for a fee. And while at the height of the real estate boom
those fees went a long way toward providing refuge for displaced tortoises, the real estate bust has seen the program implode.

Apparently they do plan on releasing the 'hearty' ones that may have a chance of survival. I would quite happily have them all shipped over to me and
I would happily look after them. However I live on an island of the West Coast of Scotland and methinks it might be too cold for them here.. :/

From source : ~

“It’s the lesser of two evils, but it’s still evil,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service desert tortoise recovery coordinator Roy
Averill-Murray during a visit to the soon-to-be-shuttered reserve at the southern edge of the Las Vegas Valley last week.

Biologists went about their work examining tortoises for signs of disease as Averill-Murray walked among the reptile pens. But the scrubby 220-acre
refuge area will stop taking new animals in the coming months. Most that arrive in the fall will simply be put down, late-emerging victims of budget
problems that came from the same housing bubble that put a neighborhood of McMansions at the edge of the once-remote site.

Back at the conservation center, a large refrigerator labeled “carcass freezer” hummed in the desert sun as scientists examined the facility’s
1,400 inhabitants to find those hearty enough to release into the wild. Officials expect to euthanize more than half the animals in the coming months
in preparation for closure at the end of 2014.

NB: I am having probs getting the link to work properly. But I am sure peeps can find it using a search..

Such interesting looking creatures.. They can live to up to 100 years old. Imagine what they have seen in their time.. RIP to the Desert Tortoise.
Maybe this will be the next species to disappear off our planet...

I'm from the desert southwest and I would often find tortoises when playing in my yard (wasn't really a "yard" but open desert)....I can't understand
why they don't just release them in different areas (to prevent overcrowding).

I know its awful...!! It makes zero sense in my head. Is it not illegal to murder animals on the endangered species list..? Oh wait thats right the
government is above the law...

Something similar to this happened not long ago when 13 armed law enforcement agents went into an animal shelter and killed a baby deer called Giggles
because the shelter did not have the right permit...

These desert tortoises were added to the endangered species list in 1990. In the Endangered Species Act it says;

There are different degrees of violation with the law. The most punishable offenses are trafficking, and any act of knowingly "taking" (which
includes harming, wounding, or killing) an endangered species.

The penalties for these violations can be a maximum fine of up to $50,000 or imprisonment for one year, or both, and civil penalties of up to $25,000
per violation, may be assessed. Lists of violations and exact fines are available through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
web-site.

I'm pretty sure if they put those tortoises in the desert where others of their kind exist that they will do just fine. I don't understand why they
didn't just do that in the first place, it sounds like they just wanted to make some good paying jobs for a select group of individuals. Now to slam
those who are trying to cut their funding they threaten to kill the animals instead of releasing them. They will kill them because in these people's
minds they believe their limited insight is right. There are too many unnecessary jobs created in the name of "Humanity" that are not really
needed. It seems like these jobs often just pay someones salaries and wages, stimulating the economy. S&F

I'll tell you one place those damn turtles don't seem that endangered. Fort Irwin and the US Army's National Training Center. I've seen one of
those damn things totally FUBAR training at NTC. I remember one time we'd been operating probaly 36 hours straight and finally got a chance to settle
down and get a little sleep. Didn't happen because there were a couple of tortoises in the area we were going to set up in. So we moved about a
kilometer away from them and lost a couple of hours of rest opportunity in the time it took to move the company sized unit from one AO to another.

I don't agree with killing them, but releasing them all back into the wild has it's own set of problems. Apparently a lot of the tortoises are
rescued from domestic situations where they have picked up all sorts of bugs from domestic animals - these can be transmitted to the wild ones -
therefore endangering the entire population of wild tortoises.

Unfortunately the same thing happened here in South Africa - a story I heard 2nd hand, but when a shelter closed down, all the tortoises were piled in
a heap and set on fire. If true, then its unbelievable cruelty,

Captive bread or wild caught tortoise's should not be released back into the wild once held in captivity. I don't think releasing them is an option.
Cross contamination of diseases, virus's, and parasites is a real danger to the existing wild population.

Adopting them out could be risky also. I few people would still release them into the wild after the adoption. But killing them should not be an
option and sounds illegal somehow.

Well apparently it is very yummy. Although I will pass on that as I am veggie. Good thought though seriously. If they really are going to murder these
tortoises maybe they could make soup or give them out to peeps to eat. At least they would not be entirely wasted. Although seemingly it is the Gopher
tortoise that is eaten.

Well yes I think it is illegal. The desert tortoise was added to the Endangered Species List in 1990. And it is a fine-able and punishable offence to
intentionally harm or kill any animal on that list.

So it seems clear to me that the BLM think they are above the law. Surely they cannot murder all those tortoises without being held to account...!?
But there is no doubt that no one will bat an eyelid....

The Above Top Secret Web site is a wholly owned social content community of The Above Network, LLC.

This content community relies on user-generated content from our member contributors. The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides a collaborative venue for free expression.